Lahore : Remounts and Barry’s played exceptional polo to win the Ittehad Punjab Polo Cup 2021 openers played here at the Lahore Polo Club ground on Tuesday.
Ignacio Negri guided Remounts to 10-4 1/2 in the inaugural match of the tournament. Ignacio was top scorer from the winning side with fabulous four goals while his teammates Vieri Antinori hammered a hat-trick, Bilal Haye a brace and Imran Shahid one goal. From Colony/FG Polo, Francisco Bensadon thrashed in three goals while Naveed Sheikh struck one.
Remounts dominated the match right from the word go as they fired in fabulous four goals to have a healthy 4-0 lead while Colony/FG Polo struck one to finish the first chukker at 4-1. The second chukker was evenly poised as both the sides converted one goal apiece with Remounts still have a 5-2 lead. Colony though started the third chukker well by malleting a field goal to reduce the margin to 5-3 but Remounts continued their good show in the remaining chukker and added two more goals in their tally to further enhance their lead to 7-3.
Remounts maintained their supremacy in the fourth and last chukker as well, where they attacked with more aggression and converted three more goals against one by Colony, which had a half goal handicap advantage, thus won the encounter by 10-4 1/2. Nicholas Scortichini and Marcelo Garrahan supervised the match as field umpires.
The heroics of Santiago Gomes Romero helped Barry’s beat Newage/Jubilee Life by 9-6. Santiago fired in fantastic five goals while Ernesto Trotz converted a hat-trick and Hamza Mawaz Khan one goal. From Newage/Jubilee Life, the major contribution came from Salvador Jauretche who cracked a quartet while Salvador Ulloa and Alman Jalil Azam scored one goal apiece, but their efforts proved useless for their side in the end.
The first chukker proved to be action-packed which saw both the sides converting altogether six goals. Barry’s dominated the chukker by firing in fantastic four against two by Newage/Jubilee Life to gain 4-2 lead. Barry’s added one more in their tally in the second chukker to stretch their lead to 5-2, which the remaining chukker was dominated by Newage, who banged in a brace to make it 5-4.
The third chukker was evenly poised as both the sides struck one goal apiece to make it 6-5. The fourth and last chukker once again saw dominance of Barry’s, who managed to convert a hat-trick against a single goal by Newage, thus won the encounter by 9-6. Nicholas Scortichini and Marcelo Garrahan officiated the match as field umpires.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), two matches will be played. The first match will be contested between BN Polo and DS Polo/ASC at 2:30 pm while Diamond Paints will vie against Colony/FG Polo at 3:30 pm.